taught some of her children, she took care of the sick people, she
spun wool and knitted stockings and gloves; but every day she found
time to gather her children around her and read good books to them,
and talk to them about being good children.

So riding his pony, and helping his mother, and learning his lessons,
George grew to be a tall boy.

When he was fourteen years old, he made up his mind that he would like
to be a sailor, and travel far away over the blue water in a great
ship. His elder brother said that he might do so. The right ship was
found; his clothes were packed and carried on board, when all at once
his mother said he must not go. She had thought about it; he was too
young to go away, and she wanted her boy to stay with her.

Of course George was greatly disappointed, but he stayed at home, and
worked and studied hard. He wanted very much to learn how to earn
money and help his mother, and so he studied to be a surveyor.

Surveyors measure the land, you know. They measure people's gardens
and house-lots and farms, and can tell just where to put the fences,
and how much land belongs to you and how much to me, so that we need
never quarrel about it.

To be a good surveyor you have to be very careful indeed, and make no
mistakes; and George Washington was careful and always tried to do his
best, so that his surveys were the finest that could be made.

When he was only sixteen, he went off into the great forest, where no
one lived but the Indians, to measure some land for a friend of his.